Tutorial: Making the Traditional Round Challah

This is practically in real time... here is my earliest riser making challah with his mommy this morning. :)

L'Shanah Tovah! It is Rosh HaShanah, the new year (see the post I did last year explaining the holiday, here and Missi's post here, lots over very cute pics of her kids blowing shofars!). Jews all over the world will be celebrating and with it, beginning the new cycle of Torah readings for the year. The round challah bread pictured above is the traditional Rosh HaShanah loaf. Why not make some with your children today? See my recipe here and follow the pictures. What fun!

Take your risen dough strands

and roll them out gently as long as possible.

When you go to shape the dough, the raisins will all be well hidden inside and will be delicious when the challah is sliced open.

If you intend to add raisins to your Rosh HaShanah challahs, place them all around the flat piece of rolled out dough and then roll it up.

Do this with four pieces of dough until they are all about the same length. Lay the pieces out in front of you, tic-tac-toe style.

Each strand should be placed in opposite directions; one side is over/under, the next row is then under/over. There should now be 4 sets of 2 strands each coming out from the four sides of the woven middle, one under and one over in each set.

From each set, pick up the one that was “under” and pull it over its partner, thereby placing each of these “unders” over their corresponding partner, in a clockwise rotation. Practically speaking, this means that the left piece of each set will be placed over the right piece of each set.

When this rotation is done, work in the opposite direction, clockwise. What was formerly the right piece, will now go over the left piece in the counter clockwise direction; the pieces are not yet next to each other as they are still apart from the first rotation; pull them close to each other and bring the right piece, i.e. the one you did not touch in the first rotation, over the left piece of the neighboring strand.

To finish, pinch each set of two ends together firmly, then bring all four sets together towards the center.

Now comes the really fun part: carefully flip over your challah and look!

(I wish I could say that all of those beautiful pictures were from my kitchen, but alas, my challah is not yet done. This was taken from ou.org.)

Happy (Biblical!!!) Holidays to you and yours,

Rubbing Shoulders With Celebs

It isn't every day that famous people show up at your door.

It isn't every day that musicians stop by for a bite of lunch.

It isn't every day that you have such a nice visit with young, talented artists such as these.

Roman and Alana Wood have a new album out, read my previouse blog post about their music here or check out clips of their music here. You can buy itunes or here for the newest cd.

Menu, Revamped

Since starting our new fall schedule I've been consistent about writing a weekly menu. Somewhere along the line last year we fell of the wagon in that department. Being that my personality is definitely closer to the type A side of things, I just feel better when I have a plan.

One problem, though. Each Monday morning I've been clipping a sheet of paper to a clip board and carrying around with me while I float around doing school, laundry and cooking, waiting for inspiration. I continue to ask everyone, "What do you want for breakfast?" or "Quick, what are three dinners that you love?" After a blank stare and silence they usually shrug their shoulders and get back to their math.

So, I've finally come up with a plan that is working! What a relief. Each day of the week has it's own plan, every week, for the whole season. For example, every Sunday (baking day) we have pancakes for breakfast. On my menu it says pancakes there with a space to make notes, to be sure to add variety and more importantly, use up what I have. This Sunday we had ginger pancakes with peach sauce. They were really good! (See recipes below.) And, I added pancakes to the menu for Tuesdays as well, I make enough on Sundays to have leftovers that we can pop in the toaster to reheat. That's an easy way to start a school day.

It is the same with lunch and dinner. Once a week we will have soup and bread. I have the menu form printed out ahead of time and can just pencil in what type of soup we will be having. This is wonderful because, really, whatever we have on hand can go in to the pot. This week we had an amazing vegetable soup with vegetables that were cluttering up my fridge (again, the recipe is to follow.)

So, each day of the week will be predictable and easy to plan. I know that Thursdays we will be having tuna for lunch, I just have to decide how to serve it, as a sandwich, on crackers or with noodles? That is much easier than reinventing the wheel every single week!

To give you the inspiration I was lacking as I walked around with my clipboard, here are some ideas from my fall/winter 2009 menu:

Breakfasts: eggs, fruit crisp, muffins, oatmeal, cereal & rice milk, pancakes

Lunches: tuna, pb&j, leftovers, egg salad, english muffin pizzas

Dinners: soup & bread, mexican, chicken, pasta, ground beef

snacks: (I make two snacks a day, the morning snack is always fruit) cookies, snack mix

RECIPES:

Ginger Pancakes with Peach Sauce:

Pancakes:

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 egg, lightly beaten

Directions

Combine the flour, ginger, salt and baking soda in a mixing bowl. Stir with a fork until the dry ingredients are well mixed. Add the melted butter, sugar, buttermilk and egg all at once and stir only until the batter is completely moistened but still lumpy.

Heat a greased griddle or skillet over medium heat. Using a serving spoon, drop about 1 1/2 tablespoons batter onto the griddle. (The batter is thick, so you may have to spread it a little with the back of the spoon after dropping onto griddle). Cook over medium heat, and turn the pancakes as soon as they hold together when you slide a spatula under them.

Peach Sauce:

I cooked peaches in my crockpot all night long and add a touch of brown sugar in the morning. They compliment the pancakes perfectly.

Veggie Soup:

1 large baking potato, peeled and chopped

1.5 cups sliced carrots

1.5 cups peas

.5 cup broccoli florets

.5 cup corn kernels

1 cup squash (I used zucchini)

3.5 T butter

1 large onion, sliced

1.5 cups mushrooms

3 T flour

2.5 vegetable (or chicken) bouillon cubes dissolved in 1.25 cups hot water

1 cup milk

1/4 t pepper

1/2 t salt

1 t thyme

1/2 t celery seed

Place potato, carrots, peas, broccoli, corn and squash in pt and fill with enough water to cover veggies plus one inch. Salt the water and bring to a boil and boil for four minutes.

Melt butter over medium heat in a dutch oven. Add the the onion and mushrooms and saute them, stirring often, until they are soft, about four minutes. Stir in the flour and cook, stirring nonstop for another 30 seconds. Add the broth you made with the bullion cubes, milk and spices. Continue to stir until mixture thickens, about another four minutes.

Add the vegetable (with the water they are in) to sauce and stir well. Add more salt and pepper if you want to. Let it simmer while you do other things for about an hour and then, dinner is served!

Need further encouragement for meal planning? Check these ideas for fall menus: here and here.

Blessings to you as you plan and make meals for your family! "She looks well to the ways of her household." Provers 31:27

Week In Pictures

We have been incredibly busy! Too much so. I'm really ready for a relaxing and regular school week coming up.
For the holiday on the weekend, we had several guests over. My mom, sister and her children came over on Friday. My dear friend Thema pulled in the following day with two little girls in the back of her car. I promptly put all of the guests to work.

I tried to sneak in a few more park days this week but the weather is turning. Maybe we really will have a long and cold winter this year, it seems so early to have such cold days.

We finally got our chickens! The children each have one, so each were named: Clouds, Aretti, France and Lolly. My oldest has yet to name her chicken. She's just not as excited as everyone else about them - in fact she's a little freaked out. She let one out by accident today and was yelling for me, "MOM! COME AND GET YOUR CHICKEN!!!!!!!" My chicken? My son is thrilled. He sits in the chicken tractor on an over turned bucket and feeds them out of his hand. When he should be doing his chores, that is.

We are finally DONE with pears. I think the total was 360 plus quarts in the end. We were peaching this week, with the few boxes of peaches that we had. I am looking forward to apples.

Study of Torah

Week In Pictures

We had the wonderful opportunity of picking FREE pears at the orchard this week. Every so many trees they plant a different variety to cross pollinate their crop. These usually drop to the ground, but this year we were able to gather up over 1,000 lbs. of Red Bartletts.

We had quite a convoy to and from the orchard. A mini van, a four door car, my 16 passenger van and two pick up trucks. Here is ours being loaded.

And, you know, with getting all of that fruit comes a LOT of work! Like washing,

and peeling,

and canning. At final count last night we had 150 quarts finished. There are LOTS more boxes and we are feeling weary!

Less of Me

Powerful words:

"Today they call me “Mommy”, but someday they’ll think of me and I will be like a faint song; hopefully a sweet one. They will have their own lives and I will be in the back of their mind.
It’s not about me; it’s about God and them. It’s about how they view God, and how they see themselves. What kinds of things do I need to tell them? How much holier do I need to be so that they can have a good example? How can I get out of the way more so that they can see Jesus?

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Romans 12:1

Mothering is not easy. It is back-breaking, heart-wrenching work. It has taken over my whole body, and it puts my mind and spirit through the wringer. It is not a 9-5 job that I can quit if I become dissatisfied. I am a mother for the rest of my life, and my heart gets pulled to them every time they send out a distress call, no matter how old my children become.
But this is my “reasonable service”. It is greater than me, and it is too much for me to handle as one human being. Their needs far surpass my abilities to meet them. I am lying daily on the altar and asking God to strip me more of myself so that who He is can reach out to them through me."

Do you love this stuff as much as I do? Read more here.